[Las Vegas] While Tom Mangas, newly named CEO of Armstrong’s global flooring business, may have been new to Surfaces last month as a first time attendee, he is certainly not new to the consumer products arena and what it takes to drive product sales.

Before joining Armstrong as CFO in 2010, Mangas spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble in different posts throughout the company, including the $17 billion fabric care business (with brands like Tide, Downy and Cheer) and then the $28 billion beauty and grooming business that houses some of the company’s more visible brands like Gillette as well as a roster of prestige fragrances and skin care.

“There are a lot of similarities in how P&G went to market and how we go to market through distribution. The business model of manufacturing consumer products is very similar — fundamentally you’re driving innovation through new products, and figuring out distribution and packaging and shipping,” explained Mangas.

Tom Mangas

As CFO of Armstrong, Mangas said he took a more operational view. “I never was a CPA. Armstrong wanted someone to drive global business and expansion.”
Having been CFO for four years, Mangas brings intimate knowledge of the company but is new enough to certain aspects to be able to ask questions and offer a new perspective.

“I benefit from the historical perspective but being the new guy, I can play dumb a bit and ask questions — why do we do it this way? Stir the pot a bit. That’s how I see my job — leveraging the strength of the team but question. I’m going to ask a lot of questions and figure out how we can accelerate the growth,” explained Mangas.

Here at Surfaces he told FCW that he is in “receive mode” paying close attention to what is working for Armstrong customers and what isn’t as well as assessing the competition.

After spending his first month on the job getting entrenched in the North American business, then hitting the road for two weeks to China, India and throughout Europe to gain a global view of the business, he said Surfaces was well timed for getting him re-immersed in the North American market and begin thinking about how to execute the plan Armstrong has for future growth.

Mangas said that everything he’s learned thus far, confirms his view from his previous position. “It’s been fabulous,” he noted. “I’ve started to put together some of my thoughts on what works and what doesn’t work. Number one, people love the Armstrong brand and the innovation. We show a different level of innovation and I think it is differentiating us from others. It’s the value of the Armstrong relationship and how we drive quality. And service.”

Armstrong innovation
The word innovation came up a lot during our time with Mangas. It is something core to the strong past performance of Armstrong and will be a key element moving forward as well.
“I think we are stacking up very strong in innovation — our innovation across the line whether it’s in sheet vinyl, which has been a sleeping category, or our Alterna products or our wood product or the laminate products that are award-winning. Our team has done a great job driving that.”

North America is an important revenue stream for Armstrong — some 70 percent of company sales. In North America, said Mangas, “That’s where innovation happens.”
Armstrong left Surfaces several years ago when the venue changed. They’ve been back now three or four years but in a suite off the main show floor. “I like the way we are able to drive a very consistent customer presentation and environment here; we can engage our customers here. The showroom gives us great presence and functionality with our customers,” Mangas said.

Roadmap for success
Mangas came into the CEO position with a clear set of goals and mandates. All focus on the long term value for shareholders and the customer. “That’s the overall mandate. So we have a series of short term and long term steps that form the mosaic of that,” he said.

An important piece of the puzzle is getting the wood business back on track — a challenge for every company that plays in this segment. “Our most pressing issue is driving and restoring the attractiveness of our wood business. If you look at our margins last year, they collapsed. That was driven by a perfect storm of dramatically accelerating commodity pricing, a surge in demand in ours and other industries that caught us somewhat unprepared in the supply chain, and in a competitive environment. So getting that business structurally attractive, getting pricing — that’s short term priority one,” said Mangas.

Armstrong has made some significant investments over the past few years. Mangas is ready to leverage those. About $115 million was invested in two plants in China set to serve the Asian market. “We want to reap the benefits of our significant investment in emerging markets,” he said.

To do that, Mangas said they will look to drive commercialization of the plants and expand distribution and sales to “pull the product through,” he said. “The reality and focus of 2014 and beyond is to commercialize those plants. We see huge opportunity for resilient flooring in China and India, South East Asia and the Middle East.” In those regions, the focus will be on commercial product, not residential business.

Mangas said that things look good enough that folks weren’t even talking economics here in Vegas. “We had a good year, even through third quarter. Our problem was supply chain and cost,” he said adding, “We are not going from a point of weakness and trying to recover. We are coming from strength and trying to capitalize on it.”

While his responsibilities have changed and increased, Mangas said, “The levers I would talk about as CFO aren’t that different. The difference is who I’m talking to. The accountability is awesome. I take a sincere responsibility. How do I drive long term valuation — that is top line growth and working with our customers.”

He said the company has a clear path and that now it is a matter of making sure everyone interprets it the same way. “How do we make sure we are aligned on the strategy and cascade that through the organization? It’s about clarity and alignment of strategy. Between Armstrong CEO Matt (Espe), Armstrong Residential Flooring senior vice president Kevin (Biedermann), Armstrong Commercial Flooring senior vice president Dominic (Rice) and myself, we are very well aligned.”